Are you interested in learning a simple, inexpensive way to help you improve your voice and sing better? Recording your voice and then listening back to the recording is a method used by many singers to help them self-diagnose any issues with their singing voice, and then take the steps necessary to correct them. Taking advantage of the opportunity to listen to your voice and hear it the way others do is a great way of picking up things you may be doing wrong without even noticing – things that are very likely to prevent you from singing better.

[Just a quick note about choosing simple music recording software to capture your voice – if you have a Mac, use Garageband. If you have a PC, I’d download Mixcraft 6 – there’s a free trial if you want to test it out.]

Below is a list of ten critical questions you should be asking as you listen to a recording of yourself singing.

1. Have I learned the melody and lyrics correctly? Are there any parts of the song where I forget the words, or the melody isn’t quite correct (do a listen-through while reading the sheet music if possible).

2. Am I singing in time with the accompanist or backing track? Am I ever too fast or too slow, particularly at the beginning of phrases?

3. Is my voice the same volume all the way through, or do I make the song more interesting by adding dynamics and singing more softly in some places, or adding more emphasis or power somewhere else?

4. Am I in pitch? Do I hit every note straight in its centre, or do I sometimes waver or slide into the correct pitch after I’ve already sung the note?

5. Is there an evenness of tone throughout my voice, from the lowest notes right up to the highest notes? Is there a noticeable change in quality, tone or volume when I sing higher or lower notes?

6. Am I taking noticeable intakes of breath in the middle of phrases? Do I tend to run out of breath before I can finish a line of music, and am I filling up with enough air during the breaks in the song?

7. Do I overuse vibrato? Do most of the notes I sing have a wavering, vibrato tone, or do I use vibrato more selectively to give emphasis only where it’s appropriate?

8. Do I convey any kind of emotion or depth of feeling when I sing the song? Can I easily identify the main emotion that is the driving force behind the song’s lyrics?

9. Do I sound like I really believe the words that I’m singing? Is the essence of the song being delivered straight to the listener?

10. Am I ready to share this recording with other people, or perform this song in front of an audience, or would I prefer to be able to sing it better before I launch myself into anything more public?

If you can answer these questions honestly, and take notes on the things you wish to address you will be in a great position to start targeting problem areas that are preventing you from singing your best. A good next step is to enrol in a recommended singing program so that you can learn special vocal exercises designed to help you overcome your vocal stumbling blocks and cultivate the singing voice you’ve always wanted. Recording your voice regularly as you progress is a smart way not only to improve, but to track your achievements and see just how far you’ve come.

Most of us don’t give too much thought to the act of breathing. It’s something we take for granted, something our bodies just go ahead and do, every minute of every day. We only tend to pay attention to it when we consciously want to change our breathing patterns for a particular purpose – for example, athletes breathe in ways that help them to get the most oxygen to their muscles, women in labour breathe to help them manage pain, and people who suffer from anxiety attacks employ special breathing techniques to help them feel calmer. The way we breathe can have a profound effect on our bodies, and our health.

Singing well requires you to “breathe from your diaphragm”. Although most people have heard of diaphragmatic breathing, not many really understand what it is, and even fewer know how to use it to successfully improve their singing voice. I am going to explain firstly where the diaphragm is, then how it acts when we breathe, and finally how best to breathe when singing. I will also talk you through a simple diaphragmatic breathing exercise.

What is your diaphragm and how does it work?

The diaphragm is a muscle that lays horizontally across the middle of your body. To simplify things it helps to think of it as a tent that points upwards in the middle (towards your sternum or breast-bone), but whose base is attached to the left and right sides of the bottom of your rib cage.

When you take a deep breath, your rib cage expands outwards and your lungs (which sit inside your rib cage) also expand as they fill with air. The diaphgragm muscle contracts as it is pushed downwards and flattened, to make room for the expanded lungs which are now full of air. When you exhale, air rushes back out of the lungs, and the diaphragm muscle relaxes and moves upwards in the middle again, because it has room without all that extra air in the lungs.

Diaphragmatic breathing versus upper chest breathing

It sounds like all this should happen quite naturally, without us having to consciously think about it, but many people these days do not breathe this way unless they are asleep and nature takes over. Many people employ what is known as “shallow breathing”, or “upper chest breathing”. That means that when they inhale, they do not fill up their lungs right to the bottom, instead they only take a shallow breath that fills just the top part of the lungs, which is the narrowest part. It is impossible to obtain enough air to sing well if you use upper chest breathing.

Diaphragmatic breathing exercise

To practice diaphragmatic breathing, follow these simple steps:

Place your hands on your hips, and then move both hands up slightly until you can feel the bottom of your ribs on both sides.

Exhale completely.

Slowly take a deep breath and imagine that you are filling up with air right to the very bottom of your lungs – almost all the way down to your belly button. You should feel your hands being moved outwards as the base of your rib cage expands and pushes outwards (note: your shoulders should not move, and the top half of your chest should not lift as you inhale – all the expansion should be around the lower half of the rib cage).

Hold the breath for three seconds.

Exhale as slowly and evenly as possible.

Practice this exercise three times in a row, and repeat it throughout the day. Over time, you should build up to holding your breath for longer, adding perhaps a second each day. Remember not to hold your breath for too long if you feel light-headed (especially in warmer weather).

Using diaphragmatic breathing when singing

Whenever you start to sing a phrase, you should prepare by taking a full breath as described above, using diaphragmatic breathing. As you sing, make an effort not to expel air and exhale too quickly – you will only last through longer phrases if you conserve air and release it slowly. This takes practice, but it’s worth the significant improvements to your singing voice. Correct breathing technique may be just one aspect of a successful singing program, but it’s the foundation for almost everything else you can do to sing better.

If you’re a beginner vocalist who is just learning to sing, you’ll quickly notice that you have a lot to think about every time you open your mouth to sing. There’s your breath and breath support to consider, as well as your pitch, your stance, your tone, your facial expression, possibly some jangling nerves and a whole raft of other technical, physical and emotional issues that can seem a little overwhelming at first.

One way of minimising the stress is to start off with songs that are easy to sing. Having a good selection of easy songs to sing will help to reduce the cognitive load on your brain, which in turn will help you to focus better when you sing.

Criteria for songs that are easy to sing

What makes a song easy to sing? If a song meets the following criteria, it’s likely to be relatively easy to sing, and therefore better suited to beginner vocalists, compared to other music in general. Easy to sing songs have:

A simple melody without any difficult intervals (an interval is the space between one note and the note that comes after it)

Simple lyrics that are not overly difficult to enunciate or pronounce

Straightforward timing (notes fall on the beat, with minimum syncopation)

A range of approximately an octave or less (a song’s range is the number of notes between the lowest note in the song and the highest note in the song, so songs with a shorter range are usually easier for a singer to manage)

Deal with subject matter that is universal and not too hard for a singer to interpret or act out

Below I have listed some suggestions of popular songs that are easy to sing and particularly appropriate for beginner vocalists.

It is easy to obtain sheet music for all of the songs listed above, and you’ll find most of the songs have been recorded by more than one artist. This means you’ll be able to listen to a few versions, which is a helpful exercise that enhances your learning process. Remember that to really improve your singing voice, you should either engage a great teacher for weekly lessons, or invest in an excellent singing instruction package.

This post about how to sing in public actually started out as a response to a comment that a reader posted here on my blog, which said:

“I do not sing in public, no guts. Some people say I have a good voice… Are there any websites you recommend?… I would like to sing in public just for the joy of singing. I joined a church choir, but it did not work out for me.”

I answered the comment, but have expanded on my response here because the fear of performing in public is very common – most people would vastly prefer singing in the privacy of their own shower than singing in front of an audience. Just like public speaking, public singing can be more than a little terrifying, but it’s not just about having guts, it’s about building up your confidence, and that’s largely based on experience. If you want to learn how to sing in public, there’s only one place you’ll learn, and that’s on the stage itself.

Some people hold mini-concerts, or recitals, in front of family and friends, just to get used to having others in the room while they sing. Sometimes this is helpful, but some people find it more stressful to sing in front of people they know. The nice thing about singing in front of strangers is knowing that if things aren’t perfect, there’s nobody to remind you of it at the next family barbeque! Colleagues of mine who are now professional singers even busked in the street in their early days – not for the cash, just for the experience and exhilaration of singing in public places in front of people they were never likely to encounter again.

I believe one of the best ways to build up your confidence is always to start small – maybe try entering a local music festival (sometimes they’re called an “eisteddfod”) so you’ll only be singing for a small group of people. These are easy to find if you search on the internet. You will notice that after a while people will start coming up to say that they think you have a good voice, or that they really enjoyed your performance of a particular song, and bit by bit that helps to build you up. Positive feedback is one of the BEST confidence-builders ever!

At the same time, you will be getting used to the practice of actually standing on a stage in front of an audience, and the more you do it, the more natural it feels. It really is one of those things you just need to work at, and looking out for suitable, small-scale opportunities is the first step. The first time I entered a music festival I put my name down for six different categories (yes, it was a long and exhausting day!). At my first performance for the day I was an absolute wreck of nerves, and it showed, but by my fourth piece I actually started feeling an eagerness to get back up and try again. I was already thinking about things I’d done wrong earlier, and how I could avoid those mistakes the next time around.

Singing in a choir can be a good way of getting used to singing in public without feeling exposed, but there’s still a pretty big leap between singing along with 20+ other people, and taking the stage solo. Looking for a quartet or someone to duet with might work better – just having an extra person on stage for both moral and musical support can be helpful as you get started. Alternatively, find an accompanist (usually a pianist) whom you trust and work well with – having them on stage supporting and performing with you can be a huge confidence booster.

Finally, to address the last part of the reader’s post I was answering – in terms of web site recommendations for singing and performing, if you can’t find an experienced singing teacher such as myself to work with you, I’d go with Brett Manning’s excellent Singing Success program. No matter how you learn to sing though, the important thing is to start getting exposure singing in front of other people as soon as you can, even if it’s just in front of a couple of friends to start with. If you have a good voice then you’ll soon learn that there’s much more pleasure in sharing it with others, than keeping your talent all to yourself.

Recording your voice with a microphone is a great way to give yourself feedback and improve

As a singer and musician with over thirty years of musical experience, I am often asked by people I meet, “how can I sing better?” Most of the time people who ask this question are not professional or even semi-professional singers, but everyday folks who just enjoy singing and would like to know what they can do to improve their singing voice. So, aside from taking lessons or a formal course of study, how can you sing better? There is one very basic thing you can do that is likely to significantly improve the quality of your singing: that is to record your voice, and then listen back to the recording.

Why to record your voice

We you sing, you’re not just playing an instrument, you are the instrument. The resonator for the sound you make isn’t the inside of a snare drum, or the body of a guitar, or the inside of a tuba – it’s your actual body. This means that the sound you hear when you sing will be different to what others hear, simply because you are your own amplifier. How many times have you heard your speaking voice on a recorded message or on a video and thought, “do I really sound like that?” You’re hearing yourself the way others hear you. As a singer, listening to a recording of yourself singing is the first step in really hearing your own singing voice, and then identifying how you can sing better. You will also hear yourself better by listening to a recording because you’re actively focused on listening. When you are actually engaged in singing, your brain is doing some serious multitasking. You may be doing any or all of the following things simultaneously:

reading lyrics and a melody from sheet music, or recalling them from your memory

modulating your pitch and thinking about tempo

tuning in to backing music you’re singing to

preparing for key changes

paying attention to the words and interpreting a song’s meaning

experimenting with dynamics (changes in volume)

pondering what’s in the fridge for dinner

By taking all this extra stuff out of the equation and just listening, you’ll be able to hear things about your singing voice that you’ve probably never even noticed before.

How to record your voice

Don’t be put off the idea of recording your own voice because you think it will be technically difficult. If you have an old cassette recorded or a dictaphone then you might just want to go analogue and dig them out. Ideally though, if you have access to a computer, you should use a basic music recording software program to record your voice. If you have a Mac, then I’d recommend you use the included Garageband software; if you have a PC, there are inexpensive Garageband for Windows alternatives that will do the job just as well. You can even use these programs to build backing tracks.

How can you sing better? Listen to yourself

In many ways, recording yourself singing and then listening to the recording makes you both pupil and teacher. When you listen, listen as a teacher. Take note of what sounds good, and what doesn’t, and ask yourself questions such as:

Is your voice weaker in some areas?

Are there any pitch problems?

Is there minimal variation in your singing (i.e. does every line you sing sound pretty much the same?)

Are your words clearly enunciated and understandable?

Do you ever run out of breath in the middle of a phrase?

Would an audience be convinced about the words you’re singing?

Pretend you’re listening to someone else, and be critical – identifying what doesn’t sound good is actually a positive thing, because it’s the first step in pinpointing what needs to be worked on. If you think it all sounds 100% perfect, then you really need to call in a critical friend who can provide you with some honest feedback!

Even professional singers have weaknesses, but the trick is to identify problems and then practice, practice, practice to overcome them. Recording and then listening to your own singing voice is one the most simple, effective ways to start learning how to sing better. Nothing can replace a programme of singing lessons – either face to face or an instruction package – but listening to a recording of your own voice is a first step in identifying exactly what you need to work on to be able to sing better.

Related article: 10 Things to Listen For if You Want to Improve Your Singing